After the Red-Headed Stranger recently cancelled shows due to a bout with the flue we collectively held our breaths. It’s to be expected, news of a more virulent strain and less effective vaccine saturates our media.

Willie is 84 years old and recent times have not been kind to our music heroes.

Nelson answers our concerns by not only booking new shows, including headlining his 2018 Luck Reunion day festivaL held at his ranch outside Austin, Texas, but also announcing a new album following up his last release, ‘God’s Problem Child,’ by just a day short of a year.

Nelson will celebrate his 85th birthday (4/29) with the release of a new album, ‘Last Man Standing.’ The new release will offer 11 new songs written by Nelson and longtime collaborator Buddy Cannon.

Below, listen to the title track, which much like the first release off his previous album, “Still Not Dead,” playfully addresses his aforementioned mortality.

“I don’t want to be the last man standing/Or wait a minute, maybe I do.”

Though Jerry Lee Lewis used the title ‘Last Man Standing’ on his 2006 album addressing his longevity as the last remaining member of the Sun Studio’s “Million Dollar Quartet,” Nelson is referring to his brotherhood of Outlaw country members which overlaps Lewis’ with a single member, Johnny Cash.

Though Nelson is not yet the last man standing he is in rarified company as Kris Kristofferson is still kicking and a case could be made for David Allan Coe.